Changing the Future

Chapter 41

Over the next few weeks, I unofficially became Olympus' messenger girl again, usually being used to solidify relations with whichever gods hadn't turned their backs on the gods yet. I hated playing ambassador but did it anyway after Zeus threatened to keep me on Olympus full time as one of the guardians. 

"You already did enough damage revealing your chronokinesis to the campers," he had said, his fingers tapping the armrests of his throne like that was supposed to unnerve me or something. Clearly, he'd forgotten I'd been around his arrogant and pompous attitude for most of my adolescence, meaning I was no longer afraid of the Lord of the Skies.

"Not true," I'd countered, tapping my foot impatiently as I waited to leave. I'd made plans with Pete, Joe, and Leah earlier to keep up appearances, and this meeting was making me late. "No one saw me use my powers."

"Then explain how I know about this!"

I rolled my eyes. "You had Apollo put time-sensitive sensors in my body, remember? You said it was for precautionary purposes after the last time I manipulated time."

"Yes, well, you should've let that boy die."

"That was my son she saved," Hephaestus grumbled, shooting his father a scathing glare. "And it wasn't his fate to die from a car crash that night."

"And how would you know that?" Zeus accused, squinting his eyes at the blacksmith. "You haven't been spending time with the Fates, have you?"

"Like anyone actually wants to spend time with those creepy hags," Apollo said, shuddering at the mere thought of the Fates.

"Says the god of prophecy," Artemis scoffed.

"Hey, that was cold, sis."

"Don't call me that!"

"Anyways," I said, interrupting the gods before this could turn out into a typical council fight, "who do you need me to check on? I have other things to do, you know."

Hermes threw a small notebook at me. I caught it and read the cover, where someone had written the words "List of Potential Allies/Enemies" in fancy script. I began flipping through the pages, fighting back an annoyed groan when I saw the list of people that I still had to talk to.

"Is that all?" I asked, already thinking of how and when I was going to visit two-hundred some minor gods and goddesses that were scattered all over the world.

"Yes, you may go," Athena said, never looking up from the book she was reading, completely blocking out the fights that had broken out around her.

And that was how I spent my next few weeks, reaching every corner of the globe. With how often I was away from Camp-Half Blood, people were starting to get concerned about me, namely Chiron, Luke, Percy, Annabeth, and Will. Grover would've been freaking about my coming and going, too, but he was so busy doing Lord of the Wild stuff that I doubted he was paying me any attention.

Take the Fourth of July, for example.

I'd recently come back from a mission in Brazil after talking with tons of river gods – you'd be surprised how many rivers are in South America – and all I wanted to do was get some much needed sleep. Because alongside river gods came river monsters, nasty little snakes that didn't have eyes, conducted electricity, and could spew venom up to ten feet away. Needless to say, I hadn't been aware of these slimy snakes, and as a result, my left thigh was heavily bandaged after suffering some burns from the venom.

Of course, that wasn't how it worked out.

I came back to camp on Star, meaning that instead of appearing in cabin three like I usually did, I had to walk from the pegasi stables through the camp to reach my bunk. On my way back, both Will and Luke stopped me with large bear hugs, sending a flare of pain racing through my leg when Will accidently pushed against the bandages there.